TNAG-1558-FCO40-2122-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 163

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CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL

4.

servicemen who fought in Hong Kong during

Second World War.

the

these

We shall of course meet the first of requests but the other two cause the Home Office, serious difficulties.

Passport endorsement

5.

On (b) BN (0) s do not have an unfettered right to enter the UK, and it would be wrong to enter a misleading endorsement in the passport suggesting that they did. We believe however that it should be possible to find a formula that is not misleading and yet meets Hong Kong's wishes. The Home Office (and I think Mr Waddington in particular) are more resistant, arguing that such an endorsment would commit a future government to not changing the immigration status of BN (0) s. strong reservations about the Home Office line on this point, and intend to recommend to Sir Geoffrey Howe that he pursue this with the Home Secretary after the debate in the hope of finding a compromise solution.

Indians

6.

they want:

We

have

is no strong Hong Kong reason to resist the

>

There granting of British citizenship to non-Chinese BD TCs now that the Hong Kong Government has decided to support this proposal.

However we sympathise with Home Office reluctance to agree, despite the success of the lobbying by the Indians. We have given the Indians what they say a guaranteed form of British nationality (BN (0) or BOC) to the middle of the next century if they would otherwise be stateless, and through Section XIV of Ann ex I to the Joint Declaration, the right of abode in Hong Kong. British citizenship, which they

they are pressing for, would give them right of abode in the United Kingdom, and not

Hong Kong, which is where they they want to remain. Nor will British citizenship be any better guarantee against statelessness than BOC,

if they remain in Hong Kong.

Neither BC nor BOC can be

in

transmitted for more than two generations

7.

overseas.

say

If what the Indians want is

insurance against the agreement going wrong after 1997 this argument really applies equally to the rest of the population of Hong Ministers have already said that in the unlikely any British national being forced to leave Hong having nowhere to go, we would expect the of the day to consider sympathetically whether

Kong.

event

of

K on g

and

Government

CONFIDEN TIAL AND PERSONAL